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Kari Lake is ‘exactly what the GOP does not want’ as fears grow of ‘Trump triumvirate’ in Arizona: report
July 6, 2022 5:00PM ET
Gage Skidmore.
"Ultra MAGA" Arizona candidate for governor Kari Lake's campaign is facing difficulty with two critical demographics as fears grow about the ramifications of her winning the nomination or governor's mansion.
On Tuesday, conservative Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen argued that it would be awful news for Republicans if Lake were to become the GOP standard-bearer.
"Early voting for Arizona’s primary elections started on Tuesday. Republicans can do something good for their country and party by defeating Kari Lake," he wrote. "There are also questions about whether she believes her own messaging. Former representative Matt Salmon, one of her Republican opponents who recently dropped out of the race, has detailed a number of flip-flops and inconsistencies she made. Her major foe, businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson, calls her 'Fake Lake.' She’s being hammered for donating money to the campaigns of Democratic presidential nominees John Kerry and Barack Obama and for allegedly attending drag queen shows while criticizing them on the campaign trail."
Olson, a former GOP political consultant, noted that Lake's defining position is her election denialism and said that focus is "exactly what the GOP does not want" with Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs as the expected Democratic Party nominee.
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"Imagine what would happen in her first debate with Hobbs. The first thing Hobbs would almost certainly ask is, 'Do you think I stole the 2020 election for Joe Biden?' Lake has to say yes, or she will sink her own credibility. That’s when Hobbs could deliver the coup de grace: 'So you’re saying that Biden won because I stole the race rather than because tens of thousands of independent Arizonans decided Trump wasn’t doing the job?' Again, Lake can’t admit the truth without sinking herself. That personally insults all the Arizonans whose votes actually shaped the 2018 and 2020 elections," he explained.
Lake's nomination may not just cost Republicans the governor's mansion, Olson argued it "could also sink the Republican nominee in Arizona’s marquee Senate race, which could decide who controls that crucial body."
"Arizona Republicans can’t take that risk. They should instead give Kari a clear message: Go jump in the lake," he urged.
Independent voters were also warned on Wednesday that Lake's nomination may also not be in their best interests by Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts.
"With just 27 days until Election Day and polls now open, Kari Lake maintains a five-point lead in the Republican race for governor, according to new polling. Or put another way, Karrin Taylor Robson is now within striking distance in a one-on-one matchup that is a statistical dead heat, given the poll’s margin of error. [If] you are one of the legions of independent voters who takes a pass on primary elections, now would be a very good time to reconsider," Roberts wrote.
She noted that Arizona's election laws are "designed to discourage" the participation of independent voters in partisan primaries.
"The good news is, there is still time for independents to request a ballot. Still time to have a say in whether the Trump triumvirate – Kari Lake (governor), Blake Masters (Senate) and Mark Finchem (secretary of state) – will be on the ballot in November. Or possibly in office come January," she explained. "If independents do turn out, it’s hard to see them turning out en masse for Lake, whose campaign is fueled more by outrage and theatrics than by any suggestion that she's ready to run a fast growing state of 7.2 million people. She has endorsed candidates who show an appalling tendency to pal around with white nationalists. (See: Rep. Paul Gosar and state Sen. Wendy Rogers.)"
July 22 the deadline to request an early ballot for the August 2 primary.
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